The Supreme Court might have made a mistake when it decided to
make George W. Bush president back in 2000, retired justice
Sandra Day O'Connor has admitted.

"It took the case and decided it at a time when it was still a
big election issue," O'Connor told the Chicago Tribune editorial board on Friday.
"Maybe the court should have said, 'We're not going to take it,
goodbye.'"

In the same interview, she added that she was relieved when
several recounts in disputed Florida counties proved Bush won.

But on Friday, she said, "It turned out the election
authorities in Florida hadn’t done a real good job there and kind
of messed it up. And probably the Supreme Court added to the
problem at the end of the day."

The case definitely gave the court "a less-than-perfect
reputation" in the eyes of the public, she said.

New Yorker reporter Jeffrey Toobin told NPR that
O'Connor regrets her vote, even if she will never say so:

"To know
Justice O'Connor as I am privileged to do is to know that the
word 'regret' never passes her lips... Did sheregret her votein Bush v.
Gore? Did
she regret the Bush presidency? You bet she did, and you
bet she does. The war in Iraq. The war
on terror. John Ashcroft as attorney general.
TheTerri
Schiavo case. All of these
things filled Justice O'Connor with revulsion, and you can be
sure that her vote in Bush v.
Gore weighs on her mind."